TrackTown 12

The Track and Field Olympic Trials have once again arrived in Eugene, Oregon.  For ten days track and field athletes gather at Hayward Field to compete to represent the US in London.  Track and field is a big deal here in Eugene.  I mean, after all we are considered Track Town USA.

Yesterday was the second day of competition and included the second day of the decathlon,  qualifying rounds of shot put, javelin, hurdles, triple jump, high jump, 800 meters, 400 meters, and the finals of women's 100 meters and 110 meter hurdles.  You can see the schedule here.  It was a great day to be at the trials.

We took advantage of the free (posh) shuttle service and arrived bright and early.  The first event started at 9:30am and to tell you the truth I was a bit surprised as there weren't a whole lot of folks at the track.  Before the first event, Cliff and I walked around the stadium, explored the festival area, and got some free goodies.  We got samples of Chobani yogurt (full size cups) and Safeway brand milk (Cliff got mocha cappuccino and I got straight up chocolate).  Side note: holy cow, I forgot how amazing chocolate milk is!  We actually got the milk because we ran on human sized hamster wheels.  The wheels helped to power the electricity (TV, music, a cellphone charging station, etc.) in the Safeway tent. 

We visited the youth area and answered Olympic trivia (well tried to anyway) and got buttons and pins.  We even got to pose as decathletes Ashton Eaton (Go Ducks!) and Trey Hardee.  But more on them later.

It has been kinda rainy the past few weeks.  In my mind the rain should be long gone.  Well, its not.  It was cool yesterday (around 60 degrees) with showers on and off all day.  No worries.  We are Oregonians.  We came prepared.  We each had on a few layers, a hat, sunglasses, and a raincoat.  We even brought plastic trash bags to keep our legs dry.  I had an awesome system of putting my bag under my coat to keep it dry and me warm.  Cliff thought it made me look pregnant.  I thought it was a good system.

It was so cool to watch all of the events.  I always enjoy watching track and field at the Olympics but to see it in real life really makes you realize how strong and fast these folks are.  It is nuts.  We were in the 4th row so we were close to the field and could easily see the competitors.  Their coaches lined the wall in front of our seats and were yelling feedback and suggestions to their athletes as the competitions went on.  The crowd was really small all through the morning events.  That seems weird to me.  Our tickets got us nine hours of events.  By gosh we were going to see it all!  So where were the other folks? 

Prepare yourself as I am just going to post a ton of photos of the events.  We were close but you still might need to look at the photo closely to see what I am actually trying to capture.  I wish I were a better photographer.  As you look through these just remember that these are my good shots!


The pole vault was really impressive.  It was starting to rain and yet the decathletes were still flinging themselves four and five meters into the air.  I snuck closer to the field so I could get a better photo of Trey Hardee getting ready to go.  Ashton Eaton won this event hands down and it helped to set him up to break the world record for the decathlon. 

Then the javelin throw started.  First we saw the javelin specialists go and then the decathletes.  On one attempt, Trey Hardee's javelin split in half as it was flying through the air.  He got to throw it again and was really happy with the results.  Apparently he just had elbow surgery about nine months ago and is amazed with his progress.  I was able to get one photo of Ashton Eaton getting ready to throw. 

 

Then it really started to rain.  I mean it was actually coming down.  Everyone in the stands pulled out their ponchos and we all just sat there watching.   At this point there was quite a bit happening on the field: the shot put, the decathlon javelin throw, the women's triple jump, and the high jump had just started.

The rain got so bad that they had to suspend events for about 20 minutes.  I'm glad as it did not look safe out there.  They had a ton of volunteers out their with leaf blowers and rolling squeegees trying to dry everything out. Cliff, Kelly (our friend), and I were all cold and wet.  Our clothes were for the most part still dry except for where our garbage bags had failed us.  I felt like a turtle.

We all were cold so we decided to get up and walk around the stadium and check out the Nike tents.  On the way I got to meet Puddles!  Awesome, right?

We ate some more free yogurt and watched the men's 800 meter heats on the large TV in the festival area.  We had sufficiently warmed up and were ready to settle back into our seats for the remaining two hours of events.  We got to see the men's 400.  LaShawn Merritt ran it in 44.78.  Nuts. 

We saw a preliminary of the men's 100 meter dash.  We also got to see the finals of the women's 100 meter dash (with this too close to call photo finish for third).  The final women's 110 meter hurdles.  The sun came out for the final 45 minutes of the day.  It was really nice.  Hayward Field really is a great venue. 

Ok, now is where I proclaim my admiration for decathletes.  Since Ashton Eaton is a Duck, we have seen quite a bit of coverage about the decathlon leading up to the games.  Apparently, decathletes are a very close knit group and they are friendly with one another.  I can understand this as they compete and stand around together for two whole days at each meet.  The guys yesterday have probably been competing with one another for years.  They would yell encouraging words at one another, help to get the rhythmic clap going for certain events, and provide an excited slap on the arm or hug when the other did well.   The final event of the decathlon was the 1500 meter run.  There was lots of pressure on Ashton Eaton. He had broken several world records over the past two days.  He had won six of the nine events and he was poised to potentially break the world record for the decathlon.  All he needed to do was shave two seconds off his best time (no pressure, right?).  The announcer kept saying this over the loud speaker.  So much pressure!  All of the other competitors were congratulating him on his amazing performance so far and you could tell they wanted to be there to see the world record broken by one of their friends.  Two guys in the pack were really great runners so they were going to be pacers for Ashton so that he could see how fast he would need to go to beat his time, win, and break the world record.  Ashton Eaton ran third until the last lap when you could see that he totally gave it his all to catch up with his pacers.  He passed the first guy with no problem but then something completely amazing happened.  The guy who was in the lead turned around to wave and cheer him past so that he could make his time.  I almost lost it.  Not only did we get to see the new crowning of the world greatest athlete but we also got to see some of the world's greatest sportsmanship.  I was incredibly proud.

After the event, all of the decathletes take a victory lap (as they made it through two days, ten events, and a whole lot of rain!).  Dan O'Brien (1996 gold metal decathlete) and Bruce Jenner (1976 gold metal decathlete) were both there to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the decathlon.  It was so impressive.  Really, you can't help but be inspired by these guys. 

Ashton Eaton had a chance to run around a bit by himself sporting a big smile and his American flag.  Side note:  he is engaged to fellow Duck and Canadian Brianne Theisen.  Brianne Theisen is currently the Canadian collegiate heptathlete with the highest score so far this year.  She will also be going to the Olympics in London. Amazing.  I bet they eat real healthy at home.  

After the events were over 99% of the people filed out of the stands.  A few of us stuck around to see the medal ceremonies for the decathlon and the women's 110 meter hurdles.  They couldn't do the ceremony for the women's 100 meter dash because at that point they still could not determine who got third (now we know that they both got third as they absolutely tied).  When the athletes arrived at the podiums, they had changed out of their regular competition outfits and into their new team USA jump suits.  Once again, I almost lost it.  So much pride. 

And then I got pooped on.  I was just standing there watching the podium ceremonies when I looked down and realized that a little bird left me a present.  When did he have time to do it?  I had a plastic bag over my lap 90% of the day to protect me from rain.  Well done little birdie.  Well done.

You can check out the rest of the results of the day here.  Best: Time: Ever.